01/6/23, St Vitus, Brooklyn NY
If you’re unfamiliar with Sunrot, you need to change that! Holy shit! This in-your-face, power sludge\crust band filled the stage and kicked off the three-band bill right with immediate and intense energy and the best kind of noise.
There are vocalists who scream, sing, and grunt. And then there’s Daniel Droste.
The Ahab frontman and mainstay has, since 2004, imbued into doom metal a unique, untouchable style of singing which surpasses anything else heard to date. It’s matter-of-fact, informative and in a class of its own.
Grinding away in the sludge metal fringes for over thirty years, Los Angeles, California’s -16– are one of those “how have I missed them?” bands that seem to fly below the radar for many, but once detected are unlikely to be forgotten. On Into Dust (Relapse Records) the band drop their ninth album, the follow up to 2020’s Dream Squasher, sounding as amped-up, powerful and determined as ever to charge head-first through the nearest wall.
Black Veil Brides – The Mourning (Sumerian)
There’s an underlying belief that interim releases are merely disappointing cash-ins comprised mostly of filler and cast-off material. A strong title track usually followed by cover versions, demo versions, live cuts or songs simply not worthy to make it onto a full length record. A theory to which Hollywood based five piece Black Veil Brides clearly do not subscribe.
My first encounter with SubRosa’s music was back in 2016 as an eighteen year-old who had just gotten a headstart into music journalism, just right after they released For This We Fought the Battle of Ages. That 2016 release was especially remarkable for my eighteen year-old self, because, apart from its droning resonance in a form of menacing atmospheric doom that would drive the listeners into a solemn state of enchantment, the album was also inspired by Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, a Russia-bound dystopian novel that portrays a state ravaged by modern-day authoritative surveillance; an uncanny prediction towards the terror of the Stalinist regime in real life. The theme and inspiration of the said SubRosa album just instantly ignited the politically conscious side in me at the time.
Metal in its various forms has a reasonably long-standing practice of making concept albums based on historical events, and the latest album from Dystopian Future Movies, War of the Ether (Septaphonic Records) continues that trend with what is almost certainly the most intense musical experience I have ever had.
The concepts and the all too real, bleak experiences of mental hardships and loss of loved ones will be well known to many people and additionally to many people we know. For Stake, these have been the fuel for the band since their inception (previously under the Steak Number Eight moniker), a vehicle for vocalist/guitarist Brent Vanneste’s grief and anxiety.
Based in Hannover, Germany, duo Might was formed in 2020 by Ana Muhi (vocals/bass/piano) and Sven Missullis (vocals/guitar/drums) and are part of the Exile On Mainstream roster which has been/is home to the likes of The Hidden Hand, Trialogos, Gore and Dälek.Continue reading
Never a country to be worried about being viewed as a bit strange, Japan has always enjoyed a rich history of unnaturally jarring cultural opposites. For every Spirited Away, Rashomon or Ponyo there’s a Battle Royale, Suicide Club, or Tokyo Gore Police, and for every bouncy and sickeningly wholesome J-Pop band there’s a Corrupted, Bathtub Shitter, and Flagitious Idiosyncrasy in the Dilapidation.Continue reading
The fabulously named Iowa-based duo Telekinetic Yeti release Primordial their follow up the rather excellent Abominable on Tee Pee Records, and appropriately it’s a beast.
Notably minimalist in its composition, which serves to emphasize the satisfyingly abrasive low end, title track Primordial kicks off proceedings with a very potent low and slow deep groove. This is made even more impressive by the lack of a bass player.Continue reading